Monthly Archives: October 2012

Over the last few weeks the knitters on my Woodburne KAL have been working away at a great pace! With their kind permission I’ve shared a handful of their works in progress so you can see how they’re all making great headway. As several knitters have all pointed out on the ravelry board though, this is most defiantly not a race. This is about enjoying the knitting, learning new skills and challenging yourself.Â For knitters who have never knit a garment before it can be very intimidating so the encouragement of a KAL is the ideal place to get started.Â Everyone is going at their own pace, with some finished in days while others won’t be finished for several months.Â If you’re having fun then you’re doing it right :-)

As you can see the first clue was for the body, you can see how the waist decreases move the cables in towards each other at the back and then back out as you move towards the bust.Â While many of the knitters are trying the delicious Briar Rose Fibers yarn for the first time there is also a variety of other yarns being used so you can see how the cardigan looks in a variety of yarns.

Remember it’s never too late to join in – the discussions are all up there on the board for you to follow along!

(Please note that the photo’s below are linked to Ravelry projects so you need to logged into Ravelry to see the full project details).

Are you eagerly awaiting clue 1 for the Woodburne Cardigan KAL?Â Well check your inbox it’s just been sent out!Â If you’ve been thinking about joining but couldn’t decide just jump in and keep us company :-)Â To chat with other knitters working on Woodburne at the same time come visit us on the ravelry board here.

For anyone following my blog you might know that I seem to be having a hard time getting my design life flowing smoothly.Â It felt like I just kept starting projects and they wouldn’t quite click in place.Â The idea would be there, but the knitting didn’t quite have that magic.Â Plus every time I sat down to write a pattern I just wasn’t able to focus.Â Even small jobs were taking twice as long as they should.Â I have no idea what changed but last week it felt like something clicked back in place for me again.Â Everything I touched worked :-)Â I don’t have a clue how long this will last but I like it!

What might have helped is that I decided on a plan for the next 9 months.Â I’ve ordered and gathered yarn (well some is still on it’s way) for both a small spring/summer collection and a bigger Autumn booklet.Â All of the colors, yarns and ideas just seem to be falling into place and the knitting has got that something special back.Â I love it when something works better on the needles than in your head!

While I can’t show you all the knitting just yet I’ll give you a little yarnie preview ……

A few months ago I was asked by Katya Frankel to write a few lines for her new book.Â Writing about this particular book seemed very appropriate for me considering it was a book of boys’ knits!Â The title, very fittingly, is Boys’ Knits.Â I was very happy to see a book being released that was devoted just to boys.Â The garments are all seamless (you can make sure they fit as you’re knitting), and are subtle enough than boys of all ages would love to wear them.Â Boys are amazingly hard to knit for.Â If you use yarn that is too scratchy they won’t wear it (no matter how much you tell them that it will keep them warm!).Â If you knit something very complex you are also almost guaranteed that they won’t wear it either.Â Katya has got it just right with this book, enough knitting interest that you’ll have fun while your knitting but nothing over the top that little (or big) boys will refuse to wear!

There are even several pages devoted to getting the fit right at the start of the book with suggestions on good places to make different modifications.Â This is something I’ve never seen in a children’s book before.Â Katya gives a size chart at the beginning that shows the ‘assumed’ sizes for each age category.Â Now we all know that every child is built differently so you can then go and make any adjustments you need for your child’s size based on this information.Â The fact that there is a uniform construction technique used throughout the book means that the information on making adjustments is valid for every single pattern.

So a little about the details; this book has got 16 different garments which includes pullovers, jackets, hoodies and a few sleeveless tops.Â All of the garments are knit seamlessly from the bottom up in the round but there is a variety of different shoulder treatments.Â If you want to see each of the garments in detail you can view them directly on ravelry here (can be digitally downloaded here also) and to buy aÂ hard copy directly from Cooperative Press click here.

My favorite part about being part of a blog tour is asking the author questions.Â I get a chance to find out how the project started and what the book writing experience was like for them.Â So without further ado here is my brief interview with Katya:

Was your son excited about you writing this book?

Not about me writing a book per se, but he was excited about being able to wear some of the jumpers, yes. I am enjoying their appreciation of hand knits very much too!

How long were you working on the book, did you give yourself a fairly long lead-time?

Time wise it was a rather long process. From the very beginning to the time I submitted the manuscript and the photos it took around a year. However, I am a generally slow person, totally believing that procrastination is good for you and so it was the planning for the book and each single design that took almost for ever. I can’t possibly start making something before every conceivable option for shaping or stitch pattern alignment has been examined, over and over again. But the actual knitting was finished in a couple of months. I have had an amazing knitter help with the samples, she was great and the sweaters were virtually flying off her needles.

Looking through the book youâ€™ve used the same basic construction technique for each garment, seamless and bottom up.Â Is this one of your favourite techniques?Â What advantages does it have?

When I start planning the pattern, I always begin at the underarm and work on its yoke first. Figuring out sleeve caps, armholes, necklines and shoulders is where I perfect the fit and settle down on stitch patterns. Personally, I think working from the bottom up lends more ways to customising sleeve cap shaping through a variety of decreases. I did entertain the idea of mixing it up with top down knits, of course, but in the end it was simply a call for consistency.

Youâ€™ve got a great set of models for the book; they all look so happy and natural in the photographs! Were you involved in the photography and model selection for the book?

In a way they did, prior to putting the designs together I polled the boys to find out what kinds of sweaters they like or would like to wear. But the good weather and the half-term break were to thank for the smiles. The photoshoots coincided with the sunniest Autumn week we had after a rainy Summer and the boys were genuinely happy. Which was super helpful of course because I wanted to make sure that the photos don’t appear to be modeled or rigid, just kids having a good time at the park, doing what they do best. It worked out to be all very casual. Albeit for exactly this reason our very first photoshoot turned out to be a disaster, I completely overestimated how much can be physically achieved in a park with kids bouncing about. I certainly wasn’t prepared to run around as much as I did trying to photograph them :-)

My two favourites from the book are probably Dax and Baley.Â Iâ€™m always a sucker for orange on boys!Â Do you have a favourite from the book?

That orange one is fab, such a vibrant colour! My favourites are more to do with the construction than the colour, Runaround for example was extremely pleasing to work on because of the way the scale of the stitch pattern changes through its yoke. I love that! And Baley, the very first jumper in the book I worked on. It’s knitted in a buttery soft Malabrigo singles that was perfect for a simple style sweater with a little interest in its ribbing.

Over the summer to celebrate my 100th pattern release (Ravi) I ran my first every KAL (knit along) that was released as a series of clues.Â I had so much fun I wanted to do it all over again!Â So what made the KAL so much fun?Â As with so many things in life I think it was the people that made all the difference.Â On the KAL ravelry page everyone was so active, enthusiastic and encouraging it really helped many, many people along the way.Â This enthusiasm was so infectious that I found myself loving every minute of it!

To me a knit along is much more than just releasing a pattern in a series of clues.Â It’s all about the extras, the support of knitters, all the suggestions I can give along the way complete with any tutorials necessary.Â It’s a little like being inside my head, you get the pattern first and then there is a couple of pages of me just talking about that section of the pattern; ways I find it easier to keep track of certain things, modification ideas that occurred to me along the way and extra info on any sections I think there might be problems with.Â Of course everything can’t be covered in the pattern alone which is why I drop into the group daily to help along with anything that arises along the way.

The KAL works best if you sign up from the beginning so you can follow along with all the other knitters.Â However if you come to the party late or if you’re short knitting time right now you can sign up at any time you want and you’ll get all clues released up to that point as well as the final pattern when it’s released in December.

How to sign up?Â Just click the link below to purchase the pattern and you’ll get the info sheet to download.Â Then just get your yarn (even better if you already have the perfect yarn waiting for you in your stash!) and get swatching.Â That way you’ll have your yarn and needles ready by the time the first clue is released and you’ll have the correct gauge so you have a much better chance of a well fitted garment!